Man gets 20 years for beating boy, 4, after losing video game

Terrance Clay has been sentenced to 20 years for the beating of a 4-year-old boy in 2012.

Terrance Clay has been sentenced to 20 years for the beating of a 4-year-old boy in 2012. (Cook County Sheriff Dept.)

Carlos SadoviTribune reporter

A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty today to beating a 4-year-old boy so severely that the boy sustained permanent brain injuries because the man lost a video game, prosecutors said.

Terrance Clay, of the 6200 block of South Western Avenue, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the January 2012 attack of the boy, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a child, a class X felony, according to a press release issued by the Cook County State's Attorney's office.

According to prosecutors, Clay was watching the boy while the boy's mother was working an overnight shift at a local restaurant. On January 7, 2012, Clay was playing the NBA 2K12 video game until 4 a.m., prosecutors said.

As Clay was badly losing in the game he became enraged and pulled the sleeping boy out of his bed and slammed the boy to the ground, prosecutors said.

After that Clay put on the young boy's boxing gloves and began punching the child in the head and abdomen, prosecutors said.

Following the attack, the boy required hospitalization and was diagnosed with several subdural hematomas as well as internal injuries, prosecutors said. The boy lost some brain growth ability and will never reach his full cerebral capacity, prosecutors said.